The invention relates to apparatus for positioning a patient's limb for lower extremity surgery and the like.
A limb holding apparatus that mounts to an operating table for distracting the ankle of a patient for surgery and like procedures is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,802 entitled “Surgical Holding Apparatus of Distracting Ankle” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,220 entitled “Non-Invasive Distraction System for Ankle Arthroscopy”.
A system and related method for ankle arthroscopy distraction is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,918 entitled “Multi-Mode Distraction for Ankle Arthroscopy”.
Simple multi-functional Knee Positioning Triangles for supporting limbs for lower extremity surgery are obtainable from Innovative Medical Products, inc., Plainville, Conn.
Accordingly, it would be ergonomically advantageous to provide such knee positioning triangles with sufficient functionality to allow lower extremity surgery with the ability to apply traction to the ankle and without having to attach such triangles to the operating table, as here before required with the above-identified prior art.
One purpose of the invention is to describe an adjustable knee-positioning triangle having sufficient functionality to allow tibial and ankle surgery without requiring any such attachment to the operating table and be radiolucent while distracting from the ankle.